Magnus Carlsen has won his third game in four to catch Levon Aronian in the lead at the halfway stage of the 2015 Sinquefield Cup. The World Champion played an almost model game against Wesley So, while Veselin Topalov dropped to third after a Fabiano Caruana counterattack gave the new US player his first win. The three remaining games were drawn, though only after thrilling action in Aronian-Grischuk and Nakamura-Giri.

Magnus Carlsen is showing signs of his best form - don't miss Jan Gustafsson's Game of the Day video later in this report | photo: Lennart Ootes

Fears had been expressed about the players taking things easy before the first rest day, but we needn’t have worried! There was only a single uneventful game, Anand - Vachier-Lagrave, which looked destined for a draw from as early as move 13. Maxime came to the confessional box:

Queens have been exchanged and I should be no more than slightly worse. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t think I’m going to have an early rest day. He’ll probably get a pair of bishops – we’ll see how it goes. Then I’ll be ready to play some tennis tomorrow!

In the end the game stretched to move 42, when Anand was a pawn up in a rook endgame, but the former World Champion decided to call it a day.

The much more interesting comment in Maxime’s confessional appearance concerned Topalov-Caruana…

Veselin and Maxime were actually caught on film briefly chatting about Topalov's opening

Pardon my French: Topalov 0-1 Caruana

The French no. 1 highlighted one of the dangers of reality TV shows when he commented, live:

It’s the second time that people keep repeating my ****ty ideas against the Berlin. It shows just how desperate people are against the Berlin, because I already hesitated to play this 15.Qd1 idea in a rapid game – and it was new, but it’s not new any more. And Veselin plays it without any hesitation in a supertournament against Fabiano! Fabiano doesn’t know it. I’m going to keep an eye on this game.

Maxime had indeed played the move against Peter Leko in the SportAccord World Mind Games rapid in Beijing in 2014. Here it looks as though 15…c5!? might be a good try for Black, but instead Caruana followed Leko’s play until 17…h6?! instead of 17…Nb4.

Topalov's manager Silvio Danailov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov (who is he seconding?) can be seen watching the games | photo: Lennart Ootes 

Unlike Leko, though, Caruana went on to win when Veselin lost his grip on the position. He said afterwards “it wasn’t one of my best days”, and things had already gone wrong for the Bulgarian when he rejected a draw by repetition on move 23, despite feeling he’d run out of energy:

It happens when you have such a big advantage after the opening that you don’t want to make a draw. I believe it’s a psychological mistake. You have to stop and realise it is over.

It was an uncomfortable game for Caruana, but after 30.e6?! he felt he was “getting somewhere”, while the decisive mistake came after 34…g5:

35.gxf5! is playable and "unclear" (Caruana), but after 35.Ng2? f4 36.Nxf4 gxf4 37.Bxf4 Nd3 38.Rxd3 Bxd3 39.Bxh6 it was an uphill struggle. Although Caruana was worried about the four passed white kingside pawns, Carlsen would later remark, “you can’t always win by sacrificing a rook!” Ultimately Caruana’s trademark precision saw him haul in his first victory with some ease.

You can rewatch the whole Sinquefield Cup Round 5 show, including all the player comments, below:

The most likely candidates for decisive results flattered to deceive.

Levon’s got a new idea: Aronian ½ - ½ Grischuk

Magnus Carlsen remarked in the confessional booth that it was going to be an interesting day partly because “Levon’s got a new idea”. His 7.Bg5 didn’t exactly look like a world beater, but it had the invaluable virtue of sending time trouble addict Alexander Grischuk into a 22-minute think. Black went on to seize the initiative, but Grischuk had already used up 1 hour and 20 minutes by the time he played 15…Bh3!

Now Levon could and it later turned out should have played in the style of Petrosian with 16.g3!, but he explained why he didn’t in the confessional booth:

I just want to share that g3 would give me sufficient compensation, I think, but if my coach was playing White he’d surely play 16.Nh4, so I thought to honour him with the move in the game… I think the position is balanced, but I could always blunder… I hope the excitement will not just be for my opponent, seeing this move!

He later commented he didn’t play 16.g3 “because probably I’m not that intelligent!” and noted he’d missed 19…Qf4 from a distance:

Suddenly Black is threatening Bd6 to hit the h2-pawn, and if the white queen moves Rg4+ followed by perpetual check with the queen is one way for Black to bail out. In the game Grischuk was soon on top, but one slip meant most of his edge was gone and he offered Aronian a draw as soon as it was allowed on move 30, with 5 minutes remaining on his clock for 10 moves. 

Grischuk and Aronian exchange thoughts after the game

That draw came in for some criticism from the commentary team, although the position did look objectively drawn and perhaps the real question is not why move 30 is the cut-off point but why two Grand Chess Tour events have different draw rules in place – no draw offers were allowed at all in Norway Chess.

The day’s other spectacular draw had an even more curious storyline:

An unintentional bluff: Nakamura ½ - ½ Giri

Team Giri - Anish with his coach Vladimir Tukmakov and wife Sopiko Guramishvili - enter the playing hall | photo: Lennart Ootes

Anish Giri played the Taimanov Sicilian, a solid positional Sicilian that Robin van Kampen covered in a recent video series for chess24. Its great virtue is that you don’t need to be quite so versed in theory to play it, although at the absolute elite level surprises are always likely. Hikaru Nakamura turned out to be very well-prepared and unleashed the 22.a4!? pawn sacrifice. Then after another 53 seconds he did something even more shocking:

Hikaru explained the mystery after the game:

I think I very conveniently forgot what I’d prepared before the game, basically. I put the rook on the wrong square when I played 23.Rd3. Basically I’d looked at 23.Re2 not Rd3 and then in the game I played Rd3 and I was feeling very stupid. Nevertheless, I think it was probably equal, but during the game I had a very bad feeling for most of it. Strangely enough, Anish also had a bad feeling about his position, so a draw is a justified result, but it was kind of a strange game. I think we both thought we were worse when we were both completely fine.

The strategic balance remained the same, though. If White could secure his own king behind the black passed pawn the black king might start to feel very uncomfortable in the centre of the board. So it proved, with 31.c4! blowing the black position wide open:

Soon Nakamura thought he was completely winning, but he’d missed that later 34…Qb6! just holds. Giri:

It got a bit unpleasant and I had to calculate a very precise escape in the end.

That leaves “only” the game that saw Magnus Carlsen get back where we’re more accustomed to seeing him.

Exciting enough: Carlsen 1-0 So

Magnus makes his confession...

Magnus Carlsen set the scene for this game perfectly when he visited the confession box during the round. We’re guessing the first word wasn’t a pun:

So, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a Najdorf today. I’m a little bit relieved that Wesley is thinking a bit now, although that could mean that I just played a bad move that wasn’t in his analysis. Anyway, I think b4 that he played is kind of a sideline, but I couldn’t remember much so I tried to just play by common sense. (noise in the background)

Now the arbiter just checked in to see how I was doing – I think he suspects there might be something going on here, but there really isn’t.

Anyway, lots of Sicilians today. Levon’s got a new idea and so it’s going to be a fun day and last time I actually did mean that I didn’t expect any fireworks in my game, but today I predict it’s going to be exciting enough, so stay tuned!

GM Jan Gustafsson shows us what he considers a masterclass in positional chess:

That left Magnus top on the first tiebreak of most wins, although if players do finish tied for first place we’ll get a playoff:

Today is the one and only rest day in St. Louis, and we can expect some sporting action from the players. Magnus was in fact already playing basketball after Round 5:

Here on chess24, meanwhile, you have the chance to play none other than 7-time Russian Champion Peter Svidler (as a Premium Member). He’ll be online from 8pm CET (the normal starting time of the rounds in St. Louis), and you can watch the whole show as he plays and talks about his moves at the link below:

• Banter Blitz with Peter Svidler

Then Saturday's Round 6 couldn’t have worked out any better. Levon Aronian will have the white pieces against his co-leader Magnus Carlsen!

You can also watch all the games in our mobile apps:

         

See also:

• Sinquefield Cup games on chess24
• Grand Chess Tour website
• Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis
• Sinquefield Cup 2015 Preview
• Sinquefield Cup 1: An explosive start 
• Sinquefield Cup 2: Time mayhem, Topalov top
• Sinquefield Cup 3: Carlsen and So win
• Sinquefield Cup 4: Levon is back